We Meet Again
by nativeNYer21
Summary: One early morning's walk along the beach results in something unexpected: crossing paths with someone else, who wants forgiveness.


Nothing like a good ol' Avatar fluff story…

Hope you enjoy.

* * *

We Meet Again…

It was the dawn of an unusually foggy morning. Walking along the beach, Katara tried to collect her thoughts. She had awoken much earlier than usual as a result of a horrible nightmare.

But… it wasn't a nightmare.

Ba Sing Se _had_ fallen to the Fire Nation.

It was disappointing, really. Aang, Sokka, Toph, herself… they had all grown so much, and yet, they hadn't been able to protect the Earth Kingdom capital from Fire Nation capture. But out of all her friends, Katara was most disappointed in herself.

She wanted the war to be over already. It had raged on for too long, and she had lost too many friends because of it.

She longed to break free.

Katara unbraided her hair and let it fall down upon her shoulders. As her hair blew behind her in the breeze, for a moment, Katara felt free.

She stepped into the cool water and looked out at the lake, which appeared to be grey-blue in the fog. Connected with her element, Katara felt at peace.

But not fully. Deep inside, something was still pulling at her. Something was always pulling at her.

She might have stood there for a very long time had she not noticed something off to the side. Not too far off along the thin strip of sand, there looked to be a pile of something. The fog wasn't too thick, so she was able to determine what the pile consisted of: pieces of clothing.

That meant that somebody else was here. Someone had taken off their clothing and entered the water.

Curious as to the identity of the early-morning swimmer, Katara started off in the direction of the pile. Maybe one of her travel companions had suffered a poor night's sleep as well.

In her mind, she ticked off who couldn't be the owner of the clothing pile. _Well, it couldn't be Toph; she can't see in the water. She would never try swimming in the lake. Sokka, maybe? No, he would sleep through a hurricane. He'd never be up this early. Maybe Aang…_

She welcomed the opportunity to talk to Aang. After the past few days' events, they really needed a chance to talk.

But as she approached the pile, she discovered that the articles did not belong to Aang, or, for that matter, any member of their group. In fact, she couldn't even recognize the clothing at all.

At least, not at first glance.

But as she picked apart the pieces of fabric, she began, faintly, to recognize them. Remembering the clothing also brought back memories that she thought she had stowed away, thought she had buried deep inside her.

_It can't be…_

Just as she placed its owner, a familiar voice called out her name.

"Katara?"

Just like the last time they'd crossed paths. But she reacted quite differently from the last time.

She looked up to see him standing in the water before her, looking just the way she'd seen him last.

"Jet!"

A feeling of joy passed over her as she stood up and ran towards him. She wrapped her arms around him, and the feeling of his wet, bare skin against her was wonderful.

"You're not dead…" Her tears of happiness mixed with the lake water on his shoulders. She was incredibly grateful that he'd been able to avoid the horrible death that a ruthless earthbender had intended.

Katara let go of him and looked down at her dress. She smiled and let out a sigh.

"Great, you got me all soaked."

He smiled sarcastically. "_I_ got _you_ soaked? _You're_ the one who charged me, remember?"

It didn't matter anyway. She could just bend the water out.

But for some reason, she liked the feeling of being slightly damp.

She looked up at him. "I'm glad to see you're okay. I thought you had…"

"I know." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "But you didn't need to worry. I don't go down that easy."

She would have gone on looking at him for who knew how long, but after a pause he said, "I think I'll put my shirt back on now, if you don't mind."

"Oh." Katara felt her cheeks grow hot. "Go ahead."

It had just occurred to her that Jet had been bare-chested the whole time. She couldn't help but notice that he was quite muscular and well-built.

It wasn't the first time she'd looked at him in this way.

Back when she'd first met him, she had thought that he was incredible, being such a skilled fighter, working against the Fire Nation, and of course, being such a charmer.

But that was before she had realized what he was willing to do to get what he wanted.

He had once told her that he had changed. Had he really?

Could she trust him?

"Hey."

Katara turned to look at him. He was wearing his shirt now, and had picked up whatever else had been a part of the pile.

"Yeah?"

He sighed. "I just wanted to say… I'm sorry about the way things turned out. I thought about what you said, before. Letting all those people die… you were right. It wasn't worth it."

She looked into his dark, brown eyes. This time, she didn't need Toph to tell her if he was lying or not. She knew he was sincere.

"I just hope that you won't hold that against me. I really do admire you, Katara."

She smiled at him. "That's all behind us now."

"So we're okay?"

She nodded.

"Yeah."

He smiled down at her. "Thanks."

He started to walk away, back to wherever he'd come from, but she stopped him.

"Hey. Why don't you come back to our camp with me? I'm sure everyone will be glad to see you're okay."

Jet looked back over his shoulder at her. He raised an eyebrow.

"Even Sokka?"

"Well… maybe if you bring a tribute of food…"

He smiled. "Okay."

In that moment, Katara knew everything would be all right.

Nothing pulled at her anymore.

She knew, now, that she could trust him.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed this! I sure did. The reason I wrote it? I just wanted that image of Jet, soaked to the bone, without a shirt on.

YAY!

Oh, and, I really do think he's not dead. Like my sister says, "We haven't seen Smellerbee of Longshot or any of the alive people yet either, so, why shouldn't he be alive too?"

I also think this is how he really feels. I'm sure that he at least partly took what Katara said to heart.

…and why does everyone still hate him so much? HE'S A HOT BAD BOY!!! COME ON!!!!!!!!!


End file.
